His Soul, Always
by Narshmallow
Summary: "I'm simply one hell of an English teacher, Ms. Midford." No one believed that the charming new English teacher could possibly be a fictional demon/butler, except Lizzy Midford. Something strange, however, was going on and everyone could feel it, but the devil is always in the details and very few look closely enough to see the whole picture. (multiple povs)
1. Her Soul, Frightened

**AUTHORS NOTE: Some of the characters' names have been altered slightly because of the plot line. For example Elizabeth Midford is now Eliza Midford. They are still the same person.****  
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Chapter 1

_Her Soul, Frightened_

Lizzy was never late to class.

Never.

She made it a point to be at her desk, notebook out, and poised with a pen in her hand several minutes before the bell rang. However, the first day of second semester junior year, Eliza was late to her second period class. Why? Because she had been secretly reading _Black Butler _in the supposedly haunted girl's bathroom on the third floor.

Why was she reading it in secret? We'll get to that later. What's important is the fact that it made her late to class.

Lizzy had not registered that the bell had rang for a whole minute, and when she did, she shot up from the toilet seat she had been using as a chair and ran out of the room in a frenetic manner. Unfortunately for her, her next class not only was on the first floor, but on the opposite side of the building, which meant that it would take the entire allotted four minutes between class to get to Honors European Literature.

She only had three minutes left.

Considering the teacher, Mr. Lau, the likelihood of class actually starting on time was pretty low, but there was always the off chance he actually remembered that he was teaching a class that period and Lizzy did not want to risk getting detention for being late. So, she scurried down the hall, pushing through people while shouting hurried apologies over her shoulder, and thanks to her complete disregard of proper hallway etiquette, she actually managed to get to class 10 seconds after the bell rang rather than a whole minute late. She walked through the door, confident that Mr. Lau wouldn't even be there and that class wouldn't start for another two minutes.

She was half right. Mr. Lau indeed was nowhere to be seen, but some man stood at the white board scrawling in blue marker on the board as he explained something or other. She stopped in place, unsure of what to do. When he turned to look at her, her jaw dropped and her books almost fell with it.

He looked _exactly_ like Sebastian Michaelis.

The resemblance was uncanny. For a moment, she honestly thought that the man standing in front of her was in fact the cold-hearted demon himself. She wasn't sure what to make of the odd similarities between the stranger and Sebastian, but what she did know was that if she stood flabbergasted for any longer than one minute, she was going to look like an idiot.

"Well, thank you for joining us Ms. " he paused for a moment and looked at presumably an attendance sheet on his desk, "Eliza Midford, would you care to take a seat?" He gestured with the dry erase marker an open seat next to Lizzy's best friend: Mey-rin.

"Uh, yes. Sorry for being late," cheeks blushing and head ducked, Lizzy darted to the offered desk. Mey-rin gave her a sympathetic look and discreetly pat her shoulder to comfort her.

"Now, as I was saying before…" the man continued speaking, but Lizzy began to lose interest rather quickly. She was staring, rather intently, at the man, trying to figure out how it was possible that someone could look so much like a fictional character. "…and that's why I have not chosen the books we will read for this semester yet." Lizzy shook away those thoughts; this was not the moment to be distracted with stupid thoughts. "Since I would like to get familiar with your writing styles, we'll spend the rest of the period on a creative writing prompt."

As he began to write the assignment on the board, Lizzy perked up. She loved creative writing and was happy that they wouldn't spend the period reading some boring book. Lizzy loved reading, but most of the books they read in Honors European Literature were boring to say the least. As he stepped away from the board, allowing everyone to see the task at hand, he and Lizzy made eye contact. It wasn't for very long, just a couple seconds at most, but during that quick moment between the two, Lizzy felt a shudder pass through her body. She felt like prey being stalked by a hungry and vicious predator. His eyes seemed to tell her that no matter where she ran or what she did, he would tear her apart. But what scared her the most was the fact that it occurred to her that his eyes were red. Just like a certain demonic butler.

It was at that moment that she realized that maybe – just maybe – this new teacher didn't just look like Sebastian.

However, as said earlier, the malicious gaze only lasted a moment. In fact, it quickly morphed into an inquisitive expression, as if he was trying to say 'Do you need help with the assignment?' Lizzy quickly looked down to begin the writing exercise. The initial excitement she had felt had completely dissipated. In its place, fear and confusion filled her mind. Her hand trembled slightly as she wrote. _Calm down Lizzy. Calm down. He has no reason to hurt you. CALM. DOWN. _' She felt cold sweat drip down her back. _Who is he anyway? Why is he here? Is it actually Sebastian or have I officially gone crazy_? She didn't know what to think. What she did know was that she couldn't just bolt out of the room like every fiber of her being was telling her to do. She had to relax. She had to keep her breath steady without the use of a paper bag. She had to ignore the loud pounding of her heart.

She had to ignore the fact that she was pretty sure her new teacher was a soul-eating monster.

The bell rang after the longest 45 minutes of Lizzy's life, and the stranger asked everyone to hand in what they wrote. Lizzy gathered her things and dropped the paper she wrote in a basket labeled 'Classwork.' She tried her best to subtly to leave the classroom without drawing the attention of the Sebastian-lookalike/possibly actual Sebastian, but unfortunately for her, she was not stealthy enough.

"Excuse me, Ms. Midford, could you stay for a moment?"

She cursed under her breath and turned towards him with a small, fake smile. "Of course." She walked back towards him. He was leaning against the white board holding the clipboard Mr. Lau used to use for attendance.

"Could you please tell me why you were late to class today?" He looked at her with a neutral expression, revealing nothing of his intentions. By then, the entire class had already left, leaving just the two of them.

"Oh, um, I was reading a book and didn't hear the bell ring at first. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be late." She mentally crossed her fingers, praying he would accept that excuse and let her leave.

"Well, according to Mr. Lau's attendance sheet, you're punctuality is impeccable, and as an English teacher I couldn't possibly punish a student for reading, so I'll let it slide just this once," He gave her a small smile, "Just don't let it happen again, alright, Ms. Midford?"

"Okay, thank you!" Lizzy made another fake smile before heading to the door, "Now if you'll excuse me, I don't want to be late to my next class."

"Now, we wouldn't want that, would we?" he chuckled lightly, "See you next class, Ms. Midford."

"Good bye, sir." She added the sir when she realized she didn't know what his name was; or rather what he was calling himself.

It took all her willpower not to sprint out of the room, but she managed to naturally stroll into the hallway, as if she often spoke with teachers she suspected of being demons. As soon as she stepped out of the room, she hurried as quickly as she could to her next class and arrived heart pounding and panting. She made it to her next class, sitting at her desk, notebook out, and pen in hand, a minute before the bell rang. She felt almost like herself as she listened to her teacher drone on and on about the particle vs. wave properties of light. Almost.

But despite her attempts to act normally and focus entirely on physics, in the back of her mind, the fear remained. The fear that her new English teacher might be a demon. The fear that he might come after her. She recognized how irrational it was that she thought her new teacher was a fictional character from a book, but she couldn't shake the feeling that maybe, just maybe he was Sebastian.

But if he was, why was here?


	2. Her Soul, Unbelieving

**Chapter 2**

**Her soul, unbelieving**

Mey-rin was at a loss for words, and if you know Mey-rin, you know that almost never happens. Yet there she was, staring at her best friend, jaw wide open, clueless as to what an appropriate response would be to what she just heard. After a couple moments of stunned silence, she finally was able to speak, "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? I think I misheard you, yes I did."

Mey-rin heard Lizzy's foot tapping impatiently on the tiled floor of the cafeteria, an uncharacteristic scowl adorning Lizzy's face. "Our new English teacher?" Mey-rin nodded, encouraging her to continue, "Yeah, he's Sebastian Michaelis from _Black Butler_."

"You mean 'e _looks _like Sebastian Michaelis."

"No! He _is_ Sebastian Michaelis."

Mey-rin stared blankly at her friend's preposterous supposition and tugged at the end of one of her ponytails, a nervous habit she picked up from spending copious amounts of time with Lizzy, who unknowingly could be a very draining individual. Whether it was her overzealous affinity for cute objects or her emotional extremes (For instance, she was always elated rather than simply content, or livid rather than just irked), Lizzy was irrefutably talented at driving those around her insane.

"I really don't know what to say, no I don't," Mey-rin responded honestly as never before had someone said something so outlandish earnestly, and Mey-rin could tell that Lizzy was dead serious as she tended to chew her bottom lip when she was bothered by something; if she bit down just a smidgen harder on her lip in this particular instance, it would probably start gushing blood.

"Mey-rin, it's him! I know it!" She banged her hands against the table, shocking herself at the undignified action. Lizzy always tried to be cute and doll-like, and slamming your fists against a table most certainly did not fall under that description. A look of self-loathing crossed Lizzy's features before vanishing under a mask of determined obstinacy. "I know it sounds crazy Mey-rin, but he _is_ Sebastian Michaelis. I can just tell.

"Look, Lizzy, I guess I can kinda see the resemblance between Mr. Michaels an' Sebastian, yes I can, but they really only 'ave the same – "

"Wait, did you just say Mr. Michaels? His name is Mr. _Michaels_?!"

" – 'air cut. And yeah, what's so odd about that?" Mey-rin blinked, unsure of why her friend had such a strong reaction to the name Michaels.

"Mr. _Michaels_. Sebastian _Michaelis_." Mey rin still didn't get it, and her blank expression made that dreadfully obvious, "Come on, Mey, How can you not see it? They're practically the same name!" Mey-rin sighed, but was becoming more concerned by her friend's behavior. She was not entirely sure what triggered these odd delusions Lizzy was having about their new English teacher, but she had her suspicions.

"Eliza," Mey-rin, usually as effervescent as could be, looked at her best friend with a serious expression, "Where is this all coming from? Is this because next week is – "

"No." Her answer was resolute, a very un-Lizzy like response, which typically was filled with frills and flourishes, and in any other situation, Mey-rin probably would have believed her.

"Are you sure? Because if it's bothering you we can talk about it, I really don't mind, I don't." Mey-rin could become very motherly when it came to Lizzy even though Lizzy really was not that much younger than her. Perhaps it was Lizzy's child-like persona or maybe just the nature of their relationship, either way, Mey-rin very easily became concerned about her best friend.

"Mey-rin, I honestly think Mr. Michaels is Sebastian Michaelis. They look the same, they act the same, and…" Lizzy trailed off, as if she did not want to actually bring up her final reason, "He gave me this look that can only really be described as demonic… You have to believe me, Mey."

Mey-rin _really_ did not know what to say. In general, she really did not like to completely dismiss Lizzy's ideas, but in this case she felt as though all she could do was dismiss them. She just simply did not believe that a fictional character could actually be person… And… She may or may not have been incredibly attracted to Mr. Michaels. She could not quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was the way he said her name or the way his eyes seemed to stare into the very depths of her soul, either way she was drawn to the man in a way she had never been with another person before. She did not _want_ to believe that he was a demon for that reason.

Besides, Lizzy had refused to read _Black Butler_, saying that it was not real literature and therefore not worth her time, so how could she know anything about the characters? Unless…

"You've been readin' _Black Butler_, 'aven't you?"

Lizzy looked shocked by the question. "What?"

"You said you would never read _Black Butler_ even if you were paid, yes you did, but you've been readin' it!"

"Well, yes but – "

"Now I see wha' you're doin'. You were tryin' to trick me weren't you?" Mey-rin laughed. "You almost got me too, yes you did." She punched Lizzy playfully on the arm, "It isn't april fools yet Lizzy,"

Lizzy also laughed, though Mey-rin thought that it was a little forced, but she figured it was because she was upset that Mey-rin figured out her joke so quickly, "Oh darn, looks like you caught me." Mey-rin laughed again, though inwardly she was sighing in relief. She worried about Lizzy sometimes and when she pulled stunts like suggesting that their teacher was a demon from hell, she felt more concerned about the sometimes emotionally unstable girl. Mey-rin continued chuckling whilst Lizzy smiled with a half grin half grimace sort of expression. "Mey, I have to see a teacher before my next class, mind if I bail early on lunch?" Mey-rin usually would have made sure that Lizzy had finished her lunch AND had seconds, but she decided to believe that Lizzy actually just needed to see a teacher instead of thinking that… Mey-rin quickly halted that thought, having no desire to consider it any further.

"Sure, no problem. See you sixth during trig!"

Lizzy promptly smiled and left in a hurry, which should have made Mey-rin more concerned than it did. She sat by herself for awhile, thinking about Lizzy's odd prank. It wasn't like her to trick someone while pretending to be super serious. Usually she would just tell them something ridiculous or really anything lighthearted. But pretending to think her teacher was a monster? That was not typical.

She continued to ponder this as she picked up her tray and traveled to the nearest garbage can. She then began to wonder why she had even for a minute believed that LIzzy actually thought that Mr. Michaels was Sebastian Michaelis. It was just a ludicrous idea. There was no way that it could be true. Mr. Michaels seemed pretty nice and as he said in class had been teaching in this district for many years. There was no way that he was a demon.

Unfortunately Mey-rin, her moment of contemplation made her completely forget to pay attention to her surroundings, and an inopportunely placed banana caused the distracted Mey-rin to slip and fall backwards, causing her tray to fly into the air. Mey-rin squeaked, bracing herself for the thud that what surely follow her body hitting the ground. But it never came. Instead she found herself cradled against a black suit jacket. She turned towards the face of her savior to thank him and found that it was none other than Mr. Michaels, the new English teacher.

She felt a bright blush paint her cheeks, "O-Oh th-thank you, Mr. Michaels, I d-didn't mean to trouble you, no I didn't."

Mey-rin saw him smile as he helped her back into a standing position. He handed her tray that she dropped back to her, which Mey-rin figured he must have caught as she fell to the ground. "It's quite fine, young lady, just be more careful next time." He tipped an imaginary cap as he headed presumably to his next class.

Mey-rin watched his back as he left. It occurred to her that there was no way that Mr. Michaels could be Sebastian because he was too kind…

And way, _way_ too hot to be evil.


	3. His Soul, Naive

Chapter 3

_His Soul, Naive_

"But-"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"What if we-"

"Still no."

Finny pouted and collapsed into a frustrated heap on the ground. He had just finished trying to convince his best friend, Ciel, to go on a camping trip with him, but evidently was not persuasive enough in his argument. "Ciel, you spend _all_ your time inside. Don't you ever miss the outdoors?"

"Not particularly," Ciel responded, though his pale complexion more than sufficed in making it clear that he did not spent much time in the sun. Finny never quite understood this about his best friend. How could Ciel not like spending time with the sun against his face or running through fields of bright flowers? Just imagining it made Finny itch with desire to race through wind and tall blades of grass.

Finny's train of thought, however, was suddenly broken by the sound of a loud "CIELLLL!" Finny had watched the following events occur so many times that he could actually isolate each moment as it happened. Ciel's face would first turn in surprise. Then a look of dread would capture his features as the always overenthusiastic Soma came into view. Soma would then collide into the dismayed Ciel with a large bear hug. Cue an apologetic Agni several paces away.

Today was no different than any other time Soma decided to tackle Ciel, except for one thing. The tiniest bit of an amused smile graced Ciel's lips after Soma's attack. "Soma, you do realize that it is unnecessary to greet me with a hug every time you see me, right?" His voice also was more teasing than snarky. Finny was most definitely very surprised by Ciel's lighthearted – well, as lighthearted as _Ciel_ could be – reaction to Soma's antics. Ever since his parents'… accident Ciel had bit of a grumpy or morose air to him. Finny was ecstatic to see that Ciel was starting to cheer up again after all these years.

Soma pouted and plopped down on the ground beside him, much to Agni's dismay, "Soma, you will dirty your uniform if you sit on the ground, there is a bench right beside you."

Soma stubbornly refused, "Ciel is sitting on the ground, so I can too." He then laid out completely in the grass as if to emphasize his point. Agni simply sighed, Finny assumed because he knew that it was impossible to win an argument against Soma, especially when it came to Ciel. Finny had witnessed many an argument between Agni, Soma's overprotective best friend, and Soma and found that the likelihood of winning against the obstinate Soma, even if the conversation had nothing to do with Ciel, was a near herculean often wondered why Soma had this odd attachment to Ciel, and had pestered Ciel about it, but Ciel always replied, "I did him favor, that's all," and would refuse to go into what said favor was.

"Have you seen the new teacher? I hear he's attractive." Finny looked up as a couple giggling girls passed by from the other side of the courtyard. Finny and the other boys could easily hear them though despite their distance.

"Uh huh! He is _majorly_ attractive. Ugh, I wish I was in his class." the girl pouted and crossed her arms petulantly as her companion laughed at her sulkiness. They then entered to the nearest building, one still brooding, the other still laughing

"Have you heard anything about a new teacher?" Finny asked the general group, breaking the momentarily silence that had fallen over everyone as they finished eavesdropping.

"Yeah," said Agni, who though most would not suspect it was actually a bit of a gossip, "Apparently he's taking over Lau's Honors European Literature classes. No one really knows why since Lau is still teaching the regular English classes."

Finny saw Ciel frown slightly as he took a sip of tea from his thermal before stating, "That's odd." As long as Finny had known him, Ciel was never one to even comment on gossip unless explicitly asked about it since he usually did not care for it. Perhaps he had taken interest in this particular tidbit of information since Mr. Lau is a friend of Ciel's aunt.

"Has Lau mentioned anything to your aunt?" Finny asked, genuinely curious as to why there was suddenly a new teacher.

"If he has, she hasn't told me about it," Ciel peered into his now empty thermos, either troubled or confused about this info, though it was hard to tell with Ciel. Finny didn't quite understand why Ciel was suddenly interested in this new teacher. From his experience, Ciel gave little to any regard to anything that did not directly impact him in any way, shape, or form. This, though involving a relationship of his, really did not affect his daily life as Ciel, as far as Finny knew, did not have a single class with Lau. _Perhaps_, Finny thought, _Ciel is finally going back to how he used to be!_

After his parents died, Ciel's personality completely changed. Before Finny's eyes, Ciel transformed from an energetic, happy individual to a disinterested, depressed, and moody shadow of a person at the ripe age of thirteen. Adults liked to say that Ciel had just "matured" from the event, and at very worst had just grown up a tad too quickly. Finny knew better. Finny knew that something important had been ripped from Ciel's soul, something that allowed Ciel to be happy, and nothing would ever be able to replace that.

Or so he thought. Recently Ciel had seemed happier, more hopeful. Though most people would say that Ciel really was not that different, it was little things like smiling instead of scoffing when Soma hugged him that indicated that Ciel was regaining what he lost when his parents died.

A dumb smile grew on Finny's face as this realization dawned on him. More than anything, he wanted Ciel to be happy again, and to see this actually happening was a dream come true. Finny was not completely sure as to what was contributing the most to Ciel's recovery, but he could think of a couple things that probably played a role in his healing, his aunt/legal guardian for one. After his parents died, Ciel's only living family was his aunt, Angelina Burnett, and she accepted him into her life quite willingly. She already had been very close with him as he in some respects was her surrogate son. She was unable to have children and had wished to have even a semblance of that sort of relationship, thus prompting her to become close with her sister's son. As far as Finny could tell, Dr. Burnett was a very effervescent person and perhaps living with someone as optimistic as she was what was helping Ciel become happier. More likely, her loving nature and continuous support was what was helping Ciel.

_Yes, that had to be what was helping him,_ Finny thought, but then he remembered Lizzy and he wasn't so sure. Lizzy, without a doubt, was possibly one of the most important people in Ciel's life even though Ciel probably didn't realize it. Lizzy, quite obviously in love with Ciel, was always there for him when he needed someone and although she was not good at understanding him, she did her best to help him.

Finny bit his lip, unsure of who had a bigger impact on Ciel, but then saw a bird flying nearby and decided that perhaps it wasn't important; what mattered was the fact that Ciel was finally getting moving on from that tragic event.

"Finny? Finny? Are you awake?" Mey-rin must have arrived at some point when Finny started spacing out, because suddenly she was crouching in front of him, waving a hand in front of his face.

"Huh?" Finny blinked and looked at her. "What do you mean? Of course I'm awake." Though he didn't really blame her for being confused as he was not someone who spaced out with any frequency whatsoever.

"I was jus' checking, I was," Mey-rin laughed, "By the way, wha' did you guys want to ask me abou' the new teacher? I came 'ere as soon as you texted me, yes I did." From what Finny could gather from the conversation, and he was too embarrassed to admit he most certainly had not been paying attention, they had continued their conversation about the new English teacher and for some reason had texted Mey-rin.

"You have him, right?" Soma asked, "Did he say why he was taking over Lau's classes?

"Ehhh…. No, I don't think so," Mey-rin said after thinking for a little. She opened her mouth again, as if to add something else, but then closed it again sheepishly. Finny wondered what she would have said.

"It really is of no consequence," Ciel said, taking another sip from his thermal before realizing that it was empty, "at least to me. I'm not even taking Honors European Literature."

Agni looked at him, puzzled. "Really? I thought you were. It seems right up your ally."

Ciel smirked slightly, "That's because it is. I signed up for it but then could not take it because it conflicted with a 'more important' class." Ciel scowled at that last part, obviously irritated with whoever had dismissed the significance of European Literature. "I'm taking _American_ literature right now." He said the word American as if it was disgusting or rather, below him, and Finny could not help laughing softly at his friend's arrogance. Ciel paused for a moment, as if realizing something strange. "Where's Lizzy?"

Finny looked around and for the first time realized that Lizzy indeed was not there. He knitted his eyebrows in confusion. Lizzy _always_ ate lunch with them. Well, she and Mey-rin ate lunch together and then hung out with everyone, but still. The only times Lizzy skipped out on lunch was if she was absent.

Mey-rin frowned, "Well…"

**Author's note: Sorry this took so long to update! I have had a CRAZY past few weeks. The next chapter should be up soonish. :D**


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